Campeche

San Francisco de Campeche, 19th c., also known simply as Campeche, is a city in Campeche Municipality in the Mexican state of Campeche, on the shore of the Bay of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico. Both the seat of the municipality and the state's capital, the city had a population of 220,389 in the 2010 census, while the municipality had a population of 259,005.The city was founded in 1540 by Spanish conquistadores as San Francisco de Campeche atop the pre-existing Maya city of Can Pech. The Pre-Columbian city was described as having 3,000 houses and various monuments, of which little trace remains.

The city retains many of the old colonial Spanish city walls and fortifications which protected the city from pirates and buccaneers. The state of preservation and quality of its architecture earned it the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.